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Melo P&R Potential

Melo has stated that he wants to play more off the P&R, as quoted below in an interview with another of BSPN's bumbling idiots, Jared Zwerling.

"I want to continue doing that (P&R) and figuring that part out, but that comes along with the territory and the game situation. It's all about just trying to tighten up those screws that you already have, and just having fun with it."

So I thought I'd have fun with the potential outcome, by throwing together some footage of Melo in 3 separate parts of his offensive game: Passing/assists, Driving/P&R, Power + Strength.

The pick-and-roll demands versatility to be effective, and Melo's impressive offensive spread of shooting, passing, quickness, strength, footwork, put-backs and an array of moves, not to mention his advantage against bigs on switches () makes for a tantalizing prospect.

Let's take a look at these 3 different (in some ways the same) offensive facets as food for P&R thought.

Assists: 171 Total on the season, 2.6 APG.

Very few of these assists were P&R initiated, as you no doubt noticed. But this video is evidence of Melo's ability to make the right pass at the right time. Clearly, though, he sees the floor better when stationary.

Still, the thought of Melo playing more as a P&R facilitator gets all the more encouraging, doesn't it? He's a highly capable passer, and, needless to say, is the focus of any opponent's defense as a scorer. The passing lanes will be open for Melo. That'll be a learning curve.

12-13 Assists break down - not a necessary read for those that aren't number buffs.

● 38% of Melo's dimes were to interior players. The rest were split between 3 point shooters, Particularly JR Smith (29) and Felton (25).

● Who were the next 2 most prolific receivers on the Melo Dimes List? Tyson Chandler (22) and Amar'e Stoudemire (19). Which, if you consider the fact that Melo and STAT only played just over 20 games together, is interesting. Cooking up dreams of these 2 finally playing well together, however, is fool's gold. With STAT's minutes restricted, it's as good as (though less likely than) a fart in a breeze.

● Of those total 171 season assists, 70 of them came in the first quarter of games. As we saw all season, the Knicks came out hot often, but cooled down (sometimes to the point of freezing) throughout the second and 3 quarters of games.

● In games where the winning margin, win or lose, was less than 5 points, Melo had 86 dimes, a margin of 6 to 10 points 51 dimes, and upward of 10 points 37 dimes.

● Melo had 0 assists in 7 games last season. The Knicks W/L tally for those games, 6-1. That one loss was a 29 point flogging from the GSW in Oakland.

● Games in which Melo threw 5+ assists, the Knicks won .700 of their games. 10-3.